Who Will Comfort Thee
by Maddie
Summary: We all thought the same thing. Why did no one reach out to comfort Belle? Perhaps someone did. Missing moment from episode 3.11 "Going Home". Contains spoilers if you have not seen the episode.


Unshed tears burned in her eyes, a voiceless cry caught in her throat. She was frozen though every fiber of her body screamed for her to move, to stop him, to save him. She watched in helpless agony, her heart breaking, as he selflessly destroyed the evil that had threatened them all, and with it himself. His final words to her a declaration of his love. As the last wisp of smoke that had once been her true love, vanished on the wind, the magic that had held them all, faded and Belle sensed the collective gasp of those around her. But she had eyes only for the bleak and empty pavement where moments before he had stood vibrantly alive, filled with a determination to do the right thing, proving to all what she had always known – that in his heart he had always been a good man. His resolve fueled by his love for her and for Bae. She felt her knees give out as she crumpled to the asphalt in an agony of despair. "Rumple" she cried out as she was enveloped by distraught sobs. _He can't be gone. He just returned. He can't be gone_, the words pounded through her brain. They had had a future and now they had none. As quickly as he had returned to her, he was taken away. Folding in on the heart wrenching sorrow that enveloped her, she forgot those around her, forgot their battle. None of that mattered any more. Without him she was an empty shell.

She no longer felt the passage of time, the moment of his death a frozen horror. Without a future her past no longer mattered and the present did not exist. She was vaguely aware of the bite of the coarse blacktop into her knees, but the small pain did nothing to assuage the agony than enveloped her heart. She could not move, or think. She could only feel the raw agony of his passing. Kneeling on the cold ground, the voices around her were muffled as though by distance. Then she felt an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close, a soft voice murmuring through the fog. Words of comfort she did not hear. "Rumple" she whimpered through the tears, burying her face into soft leather. "Rumple' she whispered again, a surge of tears overwhelming her.

The arm around her shoulders was urging her to her feet, making her stand though her legs threatened to collapse beneath her. "We need to go, love." The softly accented voice said soothingly. The smell of leather was Rumple, but the accent was wrong. "Easy now," the voice said again encouraging her to move.

# # #

The charm that had held them motionless and helpless, dissipated as Pan and Rumplestiltskin evaporated in a haze of black smoke. As shock rippled through the gathered town folks, the Charmings closed in around their own. Even Regina was included in their family circle, for she was family if only byHen ry's adoption. That left only two people standing on the fringes outside their circle. Himself and the bit of a girl sobbing on the roadside.

For more years than he could count the driving force in Hook's life had been vengeance – manifest by the death of Rumplestiltskin. He had fanticized how it would feel to end the life of the Dark One and avenge his love. Instead of the sweet victory he had so anticipated, Rumplestiltskin's death left a bitter taste in his mouth. The damn Charmings and their eternal optimism, had rubbed off on him, whether they knew it or not, and he had come to see that, perhaps, he was as much to blame for Milah's death as Rumplestiltskin. He had stolen her away and destroyed Rumplestiltskin's life when he was just a simple spinner, a threat to no man but himself. Hook had taken advantage of Milah's unhappiness and her desire for adventure, luring her away from her husband and her son. At first she was just another conquest, a trophy to be displayed. No one was more surprised than he when he realized how deeply he loved her. And yet, he could not resist the temptation to flaunt his acquisition and taunt Milah's husband with her loyalty to her new mate. Would he have been so foolish of her life and safety had he know what the simple spinner had become? The depths to which his evil had taken root. That Rumplestiltskin had lashed out and destroyed the one thing they both loved should not have surprised him.

But then there was this slip of a girl crying at his feet. Devastated by her loss. He was beginning to understand what she had seen in the Dark One that no one else had. Perhaps he _was_ an honorable man. _More honorable than myself_, he thought. He took a step closer to the woman on the ground, touched by her distress, but uncertain if she would allow him to approach her. Slowly he knelt beside Belle and cautiously placed an arm around her shoulders. He hoped it would be a comfort to her since everyone else seemed to have forgotten she existed. She was, after all, the villain's consort. Hook would not be at all surprised if Belle told him to go to hell and leave her alone. But he sensed she was not that sort. Besides he owed her. She had called an enraged Rumplestiltskin off him, stopped the Dark One from ripping out his heart as he had done to Milah so many years ago. And how had he repaid her – by shooting her. By using her to hurt his enemy. And he had laughed about that when Emma confronted him in the hospital. He wasn't laughing now. Much to his surprise the girl buried her face against him, one hand curled tightly around the collar of his coat, hot tears burning against his chest. At a loss for how to console her he gently nuzzled the top of her head and whispered mindless comforts. Words he half remembered from a lifetime ago. Mumbled endearments Milah whispered in her sleep when she dreamed of a little boy named Bae, comforting some childhood fear her subconscious remembered.

"Come on, lass," he said gently, urging her to her feet when he sensed the group was moving. "We can't stay in the middle of the road." Though he suspected it wouldn't matter if the road ceased to exist in the next ten minutes. "I think it would be best if you stayed with us."

As he lifted her to her feet, he felt her pull herself upward. Some inner strength that he knew he would never possess, straightened her back as her chin came up, and she stepped away from him to stand on he own. In her eyes there was a look of gratitude, he didn't feel he had earned.

Hook released his hold, swallowing against the hard, dry the lump in his throat. _You may never believe my sincerity, luv_, he thought, _but I understand the depth of your pain. _ Reluctantly he allowed his mind to return to the drama at hand. Regina was saying something about the price of reversing the curse. _One of us has already paid too great a price, _he thought sadly.


End file.
